RE-1 Valley superintendent finalists interviewed

Decision expected at special meeting Tuesday

STERLING — The RE-1 Valley Board of Education and two committees made up of staff, parents and community members spent most of the day Saturday interviewing four superintendent finalists.

Jan Delay of Longmont, Mathew Neal of Edgewater, Matthew Snyder of Lamar and Ron Pflug of Fort Morgan all said that finding out why students are leaving is vital to addressing declining enrollment. They also agreed that there is no substitute for getting out into the schools to find out what's working and what's not.

Delay

Delay is currently the assistant director of English language acquisition and federal programs for Poudre School District.

She said she see's the area as a good fit for her, noting she grew up in southern Idaho, in a town a lot smaller than Sterling.

Delay described herself as a collaborative leader and a “very optimistic person.” She said she tries to see the key points of problem, weigh the pros and cons and look at what unintended consequences a solution might have.

As an example of her problem solving skills, she talked about when the district ordered literacy materials and she could see there weren't enough leveled books and she wanted to make another purchase to supplement the already purchased materials. She talked to principles, teachers and parents.

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Delay also talked about the importance of parent involvement, noting in her district she recently started a Parenting Partners group, where parents learn about the 40 development assets from the Search Institute and how they can use those assets to bring their children up.

In discussing declining enrollment, she talked about dealing with principals within her district fighting for students.

Mathew Neal (Callie Jones/Journal-Advocate)

“When I look at this need for the district, I think that I can bring some ideas,” Delay said. “Some of the things that we could look at are some creative branding opportunities.”

She suggested looking at what the district can do to make students really want to come there. Delay pointed out that with a 19-year-old daughter, she knows when students get to be 14 or 15 years old, the parents start listening to child and if they want to go to another school, they'll probably let them.

“My style of leadership would be to put our heads together and think of some creative things, that maybe nobody's thought of,” she said.

Neal

Neal is the director of strategy/new school instructional superintendent for Denver Public Schools. He grew up in Colorado, his family farms in the Fort Collins area, and he was the first person in his family to graduate college.

Before going into education, he started out in the employment law and legal compliance area, as a business owner. One of his clients, Brighton School District, continued to ask him for help in training their staff, so he stepped in as assistant superintendent.

He also served as assistant superintendent for the Durango School District, before going to Denver.

He talked about the importance of collaborating, trust and transparency, pointing out a situation when a superintendent he worked with was going to fire a principal immediately, but he talked him into waiting and developed a plan to help the community understand why the principal wasn't right for the school.

Neal said there needs to be collaboration, not only with staff and parents, but the business community as well.

He pointed out that principals and parents are the best indicator of what needs to happen with curricular programs.

Ron Pflug (Callie Jones/Journal-Advocate)

As an example, he talked about a middle school he worked with that struggled with teachers having collaborative planning time. The staff proposed having community members teach extracurricular activities to students the last hour of the day, so teachers could have time to plan. Doing that led to increased student achievement.

In addressing declining enrollment, he said the district needs to ask new community members what they're looking for, reach out to home school and transient parents, like those involved in the construction of wind turbines, and look at what other districts are doing better than them.

Snyder

Snyder is currently the executive director of Southeastern Colorado BOCES. Prior to his current position, he taught chemistry and coached track and field at Lamar High School and was an assistant principal at Lamar Middle School.

He has four children: a 16 year old and sixth, fifth and first graders.

Snyder described himself as a “conceptual thinker” and said it's not in his nature to “come in and try to change things” or micromanage.

He shared a large notebook with a plan for what he would do in his first 60 days, if chosen as superintendent. Snyder said his plan, which includes meetings with the board, central administration staff and principals, and letters to staff and parents, will help build a relationship of trust with everyone and help maintain a positive school climate.

He talked about doing things differently with the budget, pointing to what BOCES does with teacher teams coming in from different school districts to do professional development.

Snyder said there are “no magic bullets” to attracting students to the district, but from what he can tell with a daughter in high school right now, it's all about marketing and showing what this district is providing what others aren't.

He said he sees similar issues with enrollment in Lamar. Lamar School District, like RE-1, is seen as the big district, but sometimes people want smaller schools.

After visiting the area, Snyder said he likes the Sterling community and “it fits” who his family is.

Pflug

Pflug is currently the assistant superintendent for personnel for Morgan County School District. He also has experience as a teacher and was a principal for 15 years.

“I remember what it was like to be a teacher, I know what it was like to be a principal -- I think that's a good thing,” he said.

Plug described himself as a “quiet” leader and a creative problem solver.

In talking about his creativity, he pointed to how his current district structured their music program. One of their fifth and sixth grade schools wasn't achieving like they wanted it to, so the principal suggested they move the band/orchestra out of the school day to have more time for instruction. But, after talking about it they found students had twice as much PE as art and music, so they reduced some of the PE time.

He is a “big believer in trying really hard not to cut those extracurricular programs,” because he says those are what make school special for students.

“We need to be creative,” Pflug said, about dealing with the budget. “As much as possible, impact the kids as least as possible.”

He gave another example of creativity, talking about his district's decision to change three open assistant principal positions to dean of students positions, so they could save money but still have someone in that role.

Pflug said he is a strong believer in community involvement, “because that's how you get a feel for perceptions.” He is involved in a number of groups in Fort Morgan.

In talking about declining enrollment, he said he would want to find who the students are that are leaving, “contact their parents, say ‘come in and have some coffee; let's talk'” and find out why they're leaving.

The Board of Education is expected to make a decision on the superintendent position at a special meeting on Tuesday, starting at 5:45 p.m.

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